Photography by Nasir Hamid

June, 2014

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Here are a few Fujiroids from my first photo shoot with Cos which was a lot of fun. The sky was overcast the entire time but that made for nice and consistent lighting without any harsh shadows to contend with. We shot plenty of film but those shots will follow at a later time once they’ve been processed. These shots are from the bleached negs which are a lot sharper than the prints and have more colour saturation too. I see there is a slight light leak from the ageing bellows so I’ll have to repair that but for a camera that is over 50 years old it still delivers.

These shots were all made with a Polaroid 110B Land Camera that has been modified to shoot 5×4 large format film, handheld. It can also shoot a whole host of other formats thanks to the Graflok back and I plan to do a separate post on this camera at some point. The conversion has been beautifully done by Randy of Holgamods.com and it was worth every day of the 3 months I had to wait.

It’s the time of the year when some Oxford University students are sitting their final exam and immediately after they’ve exited the exam schools they celebrate with their friends in various different ways that can involve lots of colourful confetti, silly string, shaving foam and various liquid refreshments and sometimes food as well. The celebrations are known as trashing and looking through my archive I first photographed it in 1989 (last two pictures). Back then I don’t remember as many students doing it as they do now but no matter how crazy it looks I’ve always enjoyed photographing it because I haven’t come across any other occasion where you can see such a visual expression of pure joy and elation. Friends greeting friends to show their support and help celebrate freedom. Still images can’t really canvey the atmosphere because you really need to hear the laughing, cheering, screaming and shouting that goes along with all of the colour.

This is my first set of pictures from this years’ trashing and there will be lots more to come. Unfortunately I keep being accused of working for the Daily Mail because of a ridiculous article they put out recently about binge drinking that used pictures of Oxford University students celebrating the end of their exams. Tabloid junk at its best. It’s no wonder the Daily Mail have removed the ability to leave a comment under the article. My passion is photography and documenting life, particularly in Oxford which is a place I am proud to call my home town. I don’t judge and I certainly don’t supply my pictures to the tabloid gutter press.

The 107th Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 Boxing match took place at the Town Hall in Oxford, here are some of my shots from the celebrations at the end when Oxford received the winners trophy. It was a great night and a total contrast to the town v gown match that I photographed previously. Well done guys!

Here are some images that I made back in autumn 2012 that I thought I had already posted but after checking back I realise that I hadn’t. Last week I bumped into the guy in the top left shot and after he told me that he hadn’t seen his shot yet it prompted me to check. He looked a little different but I still managed to recognise him and he remembered me making this picture during my lunch break which is nice considering it was over a year and a half ago. Some of these shots were made during my lunch hour photo walks and a couple are from a day trip to London. Same camera, different rolls of film.